Speaker 1: Afrotech Executive is our multi city series which empowers corporate executives, investors,
Speaker 1: and tech moguls. And we kick off our twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three series with a trip to Seattle to Washington Mark's
Speaker 1: thirtieth We're in the city to discussing artificial intelligence with
Speaker 1: Jessica Matthews, founder of Unchared. It be in the house
Speaker 1: with us this year for an Afrotech Executive events. Experienced
Speaker 1: dot afrotech dot com to learn more. I'm will Lucas
Speaker 1: missus Black Tech, Green Money. I'm gonna entwer to set
Speaker 1: to the biggest names, the brightest minds and brilliant ideas.
Speaker 1: If you're black, in building, or simply using tech to
Speaker 1: secure your back, this podcast is for you. Angelie is
Speaker 1: a Radio Hall of Fame inductee and multi business entrepreneur
Speaker 1: who runs companies in a variety of industries. She recently
Speaker 1: started her own Solar radio show, What Ye with Angelie
Speaker 1: after a long tenure at the Breakfast Club. As an
Speaker 1: entrepreneur with many holdings, I asked Angela how she determines
Speaker 1: what kind of businesses interest her. Definitely, she gets pissed
Speaker 1: all the time on new startups. What catches her attention. Well,
Speaker 1: I think for me, the core things that are most
Speaker 1: important to me have to do with nutrition, and has
Speaker 1: to do with education and with finance, and so I
Speaker 1: look at those different fields and if something and a
Speaker 1: lot of times I actually pursue things that are interesting
Speaker 1: to me. So it's not always that someone comes to me,
Speaker 1: but if I see something that I think is interesting
Speaker 1: or that I want to support, then I'll reach out
Speaker 1: about that also. But like I started the Press Juices
Speaker 1: Company on my own. With the juice bar, that was
Speaker 1: my idea. With a coffee company, that was an idea
Speaker 1: that got sparked in a meeting. And then with Stellar
Speaker 1: Phi that was something that I had been working with
Speaker 1: the founder Lamine on other things that he was doing,
Speaker 1: and then when that opportunity came, I was all in.
Speaker 1: So usually it's a combination of relationships with people, but
Speaker 1: I think I make sure that people know what my
Speaker 1: different fields of interests are. So we've had a lot
Speaker 1: of conversations on this podcast about you know, black people
Speaker 1: and people of color period having an opportunity just to
Speaker 1: be opportunists, and so many things that we're told is like,
Speaker 1: you know, you should lean into things that you've been
Speaker 1: passionate about for a long time, or like what did
Speaker 1: you grow up wanting to do? But we're not told
Speaker 1: like our counterparts are that you can just find an
Speaker 1: opportunity and jump on it. When you think about that,
Speaker 1: like how do you think about the opportunities that do
Speaker 1: company you? And you're like, you know, it could be
Speaker 1: a bag over there, or it could be just something
Speaker 1: that could be fun. You know, how do you think
Speaker 1: about those types of things. I'm great with getting a
Speaker 1: bag as long as I don't feel like I'm compromising anything.
Speaker 1: And so I don't want to get a bag, like
Speaker 1: promoting a cigarette company or something that I really don't
Speaker 1: believe in. And certain things I feel like aren't realistic, right,
Speaker 1: Like people know I don't eat pork and I don't
Speaker 1: eat seafood, so it wouldn't even make sense. And so
Speaker 1: if it's me endorsing something that everyone knows, hey, she
Speaker 1: doesn't really do that, then that's I wouldn't do it.
Speaker 1: But if it's something that maybe I don't know a
Speaker 1: lot about, but I feel like, okay, this could be
Speaker 1: you know, like for instance, one of my friends, Tapeka,
Speaker 1: we're working on a project together right now, and she
Speaker 1: has a whole program that's based on women who were
Speaker 1: formerly incarcerated, and so I know for people that's like
Speaker 1: a hot topic right now, and it's not something I
Speaker 1: knew a lot about, but after speaking to her, it's
Speaker 1: something that I did get more passionate about. And that's
Speaker 1: just when my conversations with her, and so I feel
Speaker 1: like we're always expanding and growing. But it is hard
Speaker 1: for me to only be opportunistic and see a bag
Speaker 1: usually I have to have, and I know it's not
Speaker 1: financially the smartest thing. I'm more like somebody told me,
Speaker 1: I'm an emotional financial person because I have to feel
Speaker 1: some type of connection. But it has been working for
Speaker 1: me thus far. But I do feel like I could have,
Speaker 1: you know, passed up to opportunities. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people who have really, really great jobs, maybe
Speaker 1: golden handcuffs, and see like they may have to take
Speaker 1: a leap and not not do that anymore and jump
Speaker 1: into an entrepreneurship. But can you talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about how you think about leveraging your current opportunities too
Speaker 1: fuel the opportunities that you want to pursue and you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to quit what you're doing today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like me having the platform that I have
Speaker 1: only amplifies all the other businesses that I'm trying to do,
Speaker 1: and really I'm trying to take advantage of it. And
Speaker 1: so it's great because I'm on the air every single
Speaker 1: day and I have my social media platforms, but we
Speaker 1: also have partnerships with people who want to endorse different things.
Speaker 1: And if I can crust promote my product with something else,
Speaker 1: then that's an ideal situation for me. If I can,
Speaker 1: you know, get my coffee to be part of a
Speaker 1: program that someone else is doing and now they're paying
Speaker 1: for the coffee and I'm getting free advertising, that's like
Speaker 1: a win win win across the board. And so I
Speaker 1: think I would be remissed not to do that. I
Speaker 1: feel like later on, I don't want to look back
Speaker 1: like we look at some of say a reality television person,
Speaker 1: and some of them have had things that have blown
Speaker 1: up just from being on that show and having something
Speaker 1: to put out. And I think it's silly not to
Speaker 1: have something to promote or to do while you're having
Speaker 1: that platform and you know you are somebody that's in
Speaker 1: the public eye. But if an entrepreneur or would be
Speaker 1: entrepreneur comes up to you. It's like, you know, I
Speaker 1: think I got to quit my job to go chase
Speaker 1: this thing. What would your advice be for somebody who's
Speaker 1: not in the public eye necessarily that maybe you don't
Speaker 1: need to quit your job, but maybe you need to
Speaker 1: figure out how to do it from five to nine,
Speaker 1: you know, instead of nine to five. I always feel
Speaker 1: like it's important to make sure you plan, and that
Speaker 1: means that you have to have a business plan. You
Speaker 1: have to have strategically figured out. This is how I
Speaker 1: plan to lunch. I'm a big fan of starting something
Speaker 1: while I have my little cushion, So starting small and
Speaker 1: then letting something grow. So put it out there, launch it,
Speaker 1: do it. I love a soft lunch because that's a
Speaker 1: great way to find out what's working, what's not working,
Speaker 1: that you can fix those things before you go full
Speaker 1: force out to the public. And so I would tell
Speaker 1: them launch whatever it is that you want to do,
Speaker 1: and make sure that you're saving and aggressively saving, because
Speaker 1: I've had to do that too. You know, when I
Speaker 1: bought my first house, I was working non stop because
Speaker 1: I had a goal in mind and a number that
Speaker 1: I knew I needed to hit I knew I needed
Speaker 1: to get to I think it was. I could tell
Speaker 1: you exactly what it was. I had to get twenty
Speaker 1: five percent. I knew I had to get to like
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty five thousand dollars in order to
Speaker 1: be able to put down the down payment. And so
Speaker 1: for me, that was like two years of just going
Speaker 1: really hard and getting money, stacking money, doing extracide gigs
Speaker 1: and everything. So I think, set a goal, set a number,
Speaker 1: and then when you hit that goal, it's time to go.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, launch it. And let's take the
Speaker 1: opposite of approach that, because there are sometimes you do
Speaker 1: need to take a gamble on yourself and you know,
Speaker 1: possibly give up something that other people will see as
Speaker 1: a really coveted thing. So what would you say to
Speaker 1: those folks whore like, you know, if you really believe
Speaker 1: in yourself and you really are about this thing, you
Speaker 1: might have to give up what other people will be like,
Speaker 1: you're crazy to give that up. Yeah, and listen, there's
Speaker 1: times that I've done things spontaneously because my gut instinct
Speaker 1: told me to do it. I feel that I trust that.
Speaker 1: It's like I love to gamble, right, and when I
Speaker 1: play blackjack, there are certain times when you have to
Speaker 1: figure out am I gonna hit or am I gonna stay?
Speaker 1: And you have an option because you could go either way.
Speaker 1: You could bust or you could beat the dealer. You
Speaker 1: don't know, and so sometimes you do have to jump
Speaker 1: out there and take that risk. But I also say
Speaker 1: that you have to know a like try to make
Speaker 1: sure that you lessen whatever chance a failure that there is.
Speaker 1: So do everything that you can to get your ducks
Speaker 1: in a row. If you are going to just leap
Speaker 1: out there and do it and be trust your instinct
Speaker 1: is everything is telling you don't do this, and this happened,
Speaker 1: and then this unfortunate thing happened, and you know, then
Speaker 1: maybe it's not the right time. And I do pay
Speaker 1: attention to signs because it's helped me a lot. You know,
Speaker 1: there was an interview I was watching that you did
Speaker 1: and you're talking about, you know, there was a previous
Speaker 1: job you had where you had a bad manager days
Speaker 1: yelled at you at one point and you were like,
Speaker 1: you know, you were you were doing marketing, I think,
Speaker 1: and you're like, you know, I'm out and the clients
Speaker 1: you were working with, like they going with inlet, like
Speaker 1: they left that company and decided to work with you
Speaker 1: separate from your relationship with that company. So can you
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about knowing your value, particularly in
Speaker 1: the world we live in today, to where there's so
Speaker 1: many people who can could work freelance and work for themselves,
Speaker 1: but feel like, you know, they need that security of
Speaker 1: an employer. You know, at that time, I didn't know
Speaker 1: my value. I had no idea that would happen. That
Speaker 1: was an emotional decision. I never one thing that's like
Speaker 1: a deailbreaker for me when it comes to work, when
Speaker 1: it comes to relationships, is I don't I don't deal
Speaker 1: with people speaking to me in disrespectful way or yelling
Speaker 1: at me, because that's not the energy that I give.
Speaker 1: But I know some people are okay with that, and
Speaker 1: some people, you know, communicate that way. That's not me,
Speaker 1: and I'm very clear about that. And So I had
Speaker 1: been working really hard and not getting paid a lot
Speaker 1: and bringing in a lot of business. And he was
Speaker 1: just upset that I was doing these side gigs because
Speaker 1: I wasn't getting paid a lot. But I was honest
Speaker 1: about it. He only knew about it because I told them,
Speaker 1: and he said that was fine, because you're not paying
Speaker 1: me what I should be making. And so when he
Speaker 1: blew up on me because of the same thing that
Speaker 1: I had been honest about came to him about and
Speaker 1: that he had approved, I just got my stuff and left.
Speaker 1: I already was fed up, and so I just walked out,
Speaker 1: took my laptop because he didn't even have computers for it.
Speaker 1: So I took my laptop. It got out of there,
Speaker 1: and you know, to me, I did bring in a
Speaker 1: lot of those clients, and I did write up the
Speaker 1: whole marketing proposals, and I was the person everybody was
Speaker 1: talking to on a daily basis. So when I left,
Speaker 1: everyone was reaching out to me like, well, we really
Speaker 1: enjoyed working with you. And that was a learning lesson
Speaker 1: from me to know that I could do something on
Speaker 1: my own, because you know, I had always worked at
Speaker 1: a company. So after that, I just started freelancing because
Speaker 1: I had got three good clients from him that were
Speaker 1: paying me a monthly fee, and I had gotten two
Speaker 1: on my own outside of that, so I was making
Speaker 1: a nice amount of money and not having to be
Speaker 1: in the office. Wow, yeah, you've been in radio. I
Speaker 1: think with twenty seven years now more, how long have
Speaker 1: I now, I've been in radio for nineteen years because
Speaker 1: you did morning shows, afternoons shows, and other things like.
Speaker 1: There's an important part of research that you have to
Speaker 1: do daily to be up on what's happening in the world,
Speaker 1: and it requires you to know a lot about a
Speaker 1: little You know a little about a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I should say, you know, how how would you say
Speaker 1: that research experience that you've had has helped you in business?
Speaker 1: Knowing a little bit about a lot of different things,
Speaker 1: it is great. Like I had a meeting with somebody
Speaker 1: the other day and we were talking about boxing in
Speaker 1: the meeting because he owns a league, and so I know,
Speaker 1: you know a bit about boxing because I enjoyed the sport,
Speaker 1: but because I've also interviewed a lot of boxers and
Speaker 1: I pay attention to that, and I watched the fights,
Speaker 1: and so you get in certain situations where just having
Speaker 1: being able to add to the conversation. That's why I
Speaker 1: tell people, when I was younger, I really didn't watch
Speaker 1: the news and pay attention to what was going on.
Speaker 1: But I tell people all the time, just make sure
Speaker 1: you keep up on current events. You don't have to,
Speaker 1: you know, deep dive into everything and know all but
Speaker 1: be able to have a conversation, know what some of
Speaker 1: the main headlines are, because those things really do help
Speaker 1: when you're at a dinner and people are talking and
Speaker 1: you don't want to just be there, have no idea
Speaker 1: what's going on in the world. And I used to
Speaker 1: be like that. I used to not have any idea.
Speaker 1: I used to not pay attention to the news when
Speaker 1: I was younger, and when I started doing radio, I
Speaker 1: had to do all kinds of research just to know
Speaker 1: about the current events and the headline topics. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: this quote that I love from Steve Jobs, and he says,
Speaker 1: you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only
Speaker 1: connect the dots looking backward. And what I get from
Speaker 1: that is you never really know why you're doing something
Speaker 1: in the moment until later on it's like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: you know it. Had I not done this thing, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to be prepared for what I'm doing today.
Speaker 1: And So if you look back on your life with
Speaker 1: that lens, what were you, know, one or two critical
Speaker 1: moments where you were in the moment, like what the
Speaker 1: heck am I doing? But then you look back and
Speaker 1: you're like, now it makes sense. Let's see, Well, definitely
Speaker 1: the time when I quit my job and there was
Speaker 1: a I mean, let's see, there's so many times that
Speaker 1: I've just done. There was a time when I got
Speaker 1: offered a job, you know, at had ninety seven, and
Speaker 1: I didn't take it. And at the time, I really
Speaker 1: didn't take it for practical reasons. It was less than
Speaker 1: what I was already making. My name wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: on the title for the show, and so it was
Speaker 1: like kind of to me in my head and stepped backwards.
Speaker 1: But I feel like everyone else was like, you're crazy.
Speaker 1: How could you not take that? An opportunity like that
Speaker 1: and never comes. There's people who have been doing radio
Speaker 1: their whole lives and would die for something like that.
Speaker 1: And I made a practical decision, and you know, now
Speaker 1: that I look back, it was the right decision. At
Speaker 1: the time, I was like second guessing myself, And now
Speaker 1: that I look back, I realized that what they offered me,
Speaker 1: it's so much harder to climb out when they start
Speaker 1: you so low, and it shows like how they feel
Speaker 1: about you and what they already think about you, And
Speaker 1: so that wouldn't have been the right way for me
Speaker 1: to embark on a situation when I was leaving a
Speaker 1: place that really wanted me, right, Like, they offered me
Speaker 1: more money to stay, they offered to give me the
Speaker 1: show with my name on it, to name it whatever
Speaker 1: I wanted to. And that's where you want to be
Speaker 1: in someplace where somebody really really wants you. That's where
Speaker 1: you want to be, no matter what if it's worked
Speaker 1: or yeah, and show me you care. And then when
Speaker 1: I left, I'm serious to go to I Heeart. That
Speaker 1: was something that everybody was like, Oh my god, FM
Speaker 1: radio is dying. Why would you do that? You barely
Speaker 1: get to talk? And I was just ready to start
Speaker 1: something new. They were the underdog station, you know, if
Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club hadn't done well, that station was gonna
Speaker 1: flip to a whole other format. And so a lot
Speaker 1: was writing on that. But I feel like that's when
Speaker 1: you really are the best, when you can go with
Speaker 1: a company that is the underdog and come out on top,
Speaker 1: and then after that the sky is the limit. And
Speaker 1: so for me, that's what it was, just to be
Speaker 1: able to go and leave a situation that was comfortable,
Speaker 1: but I just didn't see any growth there for me
Speaker 1: to go in someplace where I could be uncomfortable but grow.
Speaker 1: You know, you said something there where you talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, it's really hard to climb out when you
Speaker 1: start somewhere so low. Can you talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about that and just conceptually talk about that. Well,
Speaker 1: one thing I did learn is that a lot of
Speaker 1: times when we get offered something, people don't negotiate, and
Speaker 1: so it was really important to be able to negotiate.
Speaker 1: And so when you start off, say somebody offers you
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars a year, and you're like, okay, I'll
Speaker 1: take it. Well, then now next year, when I'm asking
Speaker 1: for a raise, I can't say I want one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars. That just sounds like wow, you know,
Speaker 1: how did that happen? So now you're like, okay, can
Speaker 1: I get sixty five thousand? And then the next year
Speaker 1: and so now you're climbing out of a situation where
Speaker 1: when they first offered it to you. If somebody offered
Speaker 1: you fifty thousand, that means that they have way more
Speaker 1: than that. You know, That's what I always assume. And
Speaker 1: so even when negotiating for bookings for different things. You know,
Speaker 1: people generally tend to start low because they anticipate that
Speaker 1: you'll come back high and that you'll meet somewhere in
Speaker 1: the middle. And so there's times that I've you know,
Speaker 1: negotiated and then they accepted too fast and I was like, damn,
Speaker 1: you know. And then there's sometimes that it's not about
Speaker 1: the money. And so if it's not about the money,
Speaker 1: then cool, But you also want people to know your
Speaker 1: value and worth. You don't want somebody to say, well,
Speaker 1: I offered her, you know, five thousand dollars and she
Speaker 1: took it. Why would you pay her twenty thousand dollars?
Speaker 1: And so it's just important for you because people do
Speaker 1: talk to each other and they ask each other. You know,
Speaker 1: early in your career, you started out as an intern
Speaker 1: for the Woutang clan. Can you first talked about how
Speaker 1: you found yourself in these roles and what you feel
Speaker 1: like was the reason you took that role and why
Speaker 1: they accepted you in that role? I think, well, for
Speaker 1: a lot of it was always relationships for me when
Speaker 1: I was starting out. So one of my good friends, Scottie,
Speaker 1: he actually owns the studio engine room where I do
Speaker 1: my podcast lip Service. I knew him when I was
Speaker 1: in high school. He went to Howard University and he
Speaker 1: was really good friends with my boyfriend at the time,
Speaker 1: and so that's how we met. Now, mind you that guy,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't talk to him at all anymore,
Speaker 1: but Scottie and I kept in touch and when I
Speaker 1: was in college, he was like, Hey, my friend worked
Speaker 1: at Woutang for Woutang Management and they're looking for an
Speaker 1: intern and I recommended you, so I think you should go,
Speaker 1: you know, go do that. And so I was a
Speaker 1: little nervous because Woutang didn't have the best reputation at
Speaker 1: the time. I was like, oh, they're kind of wild.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the value meant I should
Speaker 1: be in. And so I went and then he called me.
Speaker 1: He was like, did you call my guy? And I
Speaker 1: was like, no, I haven't called him yet. He was like, Angela,
Speaker 1: please just call, you know, at least do the interview.
Speaker 1: I told him you were coming, So I was like okay.
Speaker 1: So I went went on the interview and as soon
Speaker 1: as I walked in and we had the conversation, there
Speaker 1: were like other people waiting. They hired me on the spot,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know what it was about me,
Speaker 1: but they just hired me on the spot and that
Speaker 1: was that. And then I started working there. So it
Speaker 1: was a relationship that I had from somebody who thought
Speaker 1: that I would be good. And then afterwards, when I graduate,
Speaker 1: they actually tried to get me to not finish college
Speaker 1: and come work there. It was my last It was
Speaker 1: the junior year before my senior year, and they wanted
Speaker 1: me to just work that, just come and not go
Speaker 1: to my last year. And I was like, no, not,
Speaker 1: I think I'm in finished. I only have one year left.
Speaker 1: And then when I graduated, I ended up working there. Wow,
Speaker 1: what made you take that when so many other people
Speaker 1: would be like, okay, they want me full time. This
Speaker 1: is a music business. It's hard to get into any way.
Speaker 1: What gave you that said, you know, I'm going to
Speaker 1: finish school. My parents never went for that, bab never
Speaker 1: had to allow that to happen. And you know, even
Speaker 1: like that was my first job, and I know people
Speaker 1: weren't making that much money there, and I was like,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna pay me and for me to feel
Speaker 1: like I could survive on my own, and then I
Speaker 1: also felt like, I'm the type of person I like
Speaker 1: to finish something if I started, and so I had
Speaker 1: one year left, and I was like, this isn't gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, go anywhere. And I knew that I had
Speaker 1: other things. I had interned at MTV, I had interned
Speaker 1: at a record label. So I didn't think that that
Speaker 1: was all I would ever be able to do. So
Speaker 1: I was I was just like, let me just get
Speaker 1: my degree. I came this fire. People in the public spotlight,
Speaker 1: like in Angela, as you can imagine, often get asked
Speaker 1: to be a mentor to up and commerce. Angela takes
Speaker 1: to stay so that you should bring something to the
Speaker 1: table as a perspective mentee. If you want someone to mentor,
Speaker 1: you consider what you have to offer, not just what
Speaker 1: you want. Angela speaks on it. Yeah, being a mentor
Speaker 1: is work. It's a job, you know, because now you
Speaker 1: have a responsibility. It's like having to, you know, show
Speaker 1: somebody the ropes. Even when you hire somebody new, say
Speaker 1: as an assistant, that's a lot of work because now
Speaker 1: you're showing somebody how to do something in order for
Speaker 1: them to be and you have to be patient because
Speaker 1: everybody doesn't work the way that you work, and it's
Speaker 1: a time consuming thing too. And you know, as we
Speaker 1: get busier and busier, as you get more and more successful,
Speaker 1: time is really valuable. You know. Time is money, they say.
Speaker 1: And so for me, it's like I don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of free time. I don't even have time to
Speaker 1: do things for myself, like my nails would be raggedy
Speaker 1: because I don't even have time to go get a manicure.
Speaker 1: You know, I might get a facial like once every
Speaker 1: four months, because I just honestly for my own self care.
Speaker 1: I never have time to do the things that I
Speaker 1: want to do for myself. And so if somebody can
Speaker 1: come to me and want to be mentored, but they
Speaker 1: can also show me what they bring to the table
Speaker 1: because they've done the work. I also need to know
Speaker 1: that you'll take it seriously. Some people just want to
Speaker 1: hang around and see some fun things and meet people
Speaker 1: and be able to go back and post pictures on
Speaker 1: social media and say that they were here and they
Speaker 1: did this. But I need to see how serious you
Speaker 1: are because I also don't want to invest my time
Speaker 1: in someone that is just doing this for fun and
Speaker 1: for a look. I need to know that you are
Speaker 1: actually going hard for yourself. I'm interested in your coffee shop.
Speaker 1: I have a coffee shop also, and I'm wondering, like,
Speaker 1: when you were building yours, what did you feel like
Speaker 1: you would bring uniquely to a coffee shop experience. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a million coffee shops out there. What did you
Speaker 1: feel like you could uniquely bring to an experience? Well,
Speaker 1: I love our coffee shop, but a part of what
Speaker 1: we did was we really paid attention to the origins
Speaker 1: of our coffee and matching that up with the food
Speaker 1: and what we serve inside and even the music and
Speaker 1: the decor, and so we are. It's in Best Stye.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful location, brand new building on the corner,
Speaker 1: outdoor seating. But we also have things in there, like
Speaker 1: we have patties You're not going to find that at
Speaker 1: a typical coffee shop. We have a lot of vegan options.
Speaker 1: We have like a plant based BLT sandwich, we have
Speaker 1: a bun and cheese sandwich. It's a lot of Caribbean
Speaker 1: and African inspired items on the menu. And we also
Speaker 1: serve like eighty percent Black and Brown owned products in there.
Speaker 1: So it is a way because it is coffee uplifts people.
Speaker 1: And at the same time that we're doing what we're
Speaker 1: doing with the coffee, we also want to uplift people
Speaker 1: who have their own businesses as well. And so before
Speaker 1: we opened a coffee shop, we were doing these pop
Speaker 1: ups at another location. We were calling them pop uplifts,
Speaker 1: and so we were just highlighting other small own businesses
Speaker 1: and letting them come in for the day, sell their products,
Speaker 1: promoting it and it did really well, and so we
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to go at that theme of offering
Speaker 1: us space for these other vendors to come in and
Speaker 1: highlighting them, and then we have an amazing chef that's
Speaker 1: in there, and the quality of what it is that
Speaker 1: we do, from the avocado toes to the yoga parfit
Speaker 1: is like top notch. And so that's basically what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do. Make it a really high end experience
Speaker 1: for us, but also have things in there that wouldn't
Speaker 1: typically be in a coffee shop. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it. You talked about what in the franchise eventually,
Speaker 1: and like, you know, when you think about there being
Speaker 1: so many out there, how do you know when you're
Speaker 1: ready to take that leap and what will make it
Speaker 1: desirable regionally or nationally this coffeehouse. So what I want
Speaker 1: to do is because it's also a coffee company. So
Speaker 1: we're in Whole Foods in the New York area and
Speaker 1: some other stores and in some restaurants. So for me,
Speaker 1: the way I'm attacking it is, you know, getting into
Speaker 1: some of these major retailers so that the brand recognition
Speaker 1: is there, so that when we open the coffee shop,
Speaker 1: you've already seen us in stores, maybe you've ordered it,
Speaker 1: maybe you've made it at home already, maybe you've had
Speaker 1: it at a restaurant. You know. We have our coffee
Speaker 1: in Tatianas, which is Chef Kwamee's restaurant in Lincoln Center.
Speaker 1: We're in mc grille in Brooklyn. We're in black Swan
Speaker 1: and Maryland. So there's a few different locations that we're
Speaker 1: actually kind of more hand picking where we want to
Speaker 1: be at first before we like I said, I'm a
Speaker 1: big fan of slow growth. We haven't had the company
Speaker 1: that long and so I'm not trying to do too
Speaker 1: much too fast, and so I feel like branding myself
Speaker 1: in that way, making it something that people get familiar
Speaker 1: with the name. We've done a partnership with do say
Speaker 1: also for an espresso martini with them with their exo.
Speaker 1: And so I'm just trying to do these things so
Speaker 1: that people get familiar with it, so that when it's
Speaker 1: time to open, because you know, people would say there's
Speaker 1: a lot of coffee shops, but there's a reason for that,
Speaker 1: because people love going to coffee shop. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: I don't feel like it's something that and it's location.
Speaker 1: You know, if you can get a great location, then
Speaker 1: that matters a lot too in the opportunity. And so
Speaker 1: we have a lot of great part and partnerships. I
Speaker 1: think with the coffee, the partnerships and the collapse, they
Speaker 1: are gonna be what really drives us to and makes
Speaker 1: us unique. Yeah, I'm listening to you talking. I think
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about something we've been talking about so much
Speaker 1: and just mainstream, not even just in tech recently, and
Speaker 1: that's AI. And you've probably heard like these computer generated
Speaker 1: Kendrick Lamar records, and and I'm wondering you may not
Speaker 1: have answer to this, but I'm because I'm know how
Speaker 1: deeper you thought about it. But I'm warning, like, what
Speaker 1: you think about personalities like yourself and the future of
Speaker 1: computer generated you know, angelus, I wish I had one
Speaker 1: right now. But is that something you think about often? Well?
Speaker 1: Increasing now? But you know what it is really crazy
Speaker 1: like to see even not even just that, but also
Speaker 1: seeing people like in the metaverse and being able to
Speaker 1: go and do that. But um, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we see so many things happening where it feels like,
Speaker 1: first of well, it feels like humans maybe we aren't
Speaker 1: going to be necessary for a lot of reasons, you know,
Speaker 1: just like money. I feel like at some point, like
Speaker 1: having cash is gonna be worthless, you know, because people
Speaker 1: don't No one ever has cash on them anymore. That's
Speaker 1: a fact. And so yeah, so it's just am and
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people fight progress and fight
Speaker 1: like what's gonna happen in the future. Sure, but you
Speaker 1: have to figure out what it is and how you
Speaker 1: can actually you know, benefit from it. And so let
Speaker 1: me go ahead and do some research on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good, figure out how I can benefit from it.
Speaker 1: And I mean, to that end, what do you think
Speaker 1: how do you manage content ownership in your world? Because
Speaker 1: I imagine, because I don't know what you's your contracts are, Like,
Speaker 1: I imagine when you do radio, you don't own that
Speaker 1: asset at the end of the day, but maybe your
Speaker 1: podcast you might. And so I wonder, like how you
Speaker 1: think about ownership of content at the level of the
Speaker 1: game that you're playing. I own my podcast one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: and so the deal I have a deal with iHeart
Speaker 1: right now for my podcast, but all the content is
Speaker 1: mine and so um there's but I have anything I
Speaker 1: do on iHeart like that I created while I'm there,
Speaker 1: they own. And so I had the service before that.
Speaker 1: I have that all you know, taken care of and
Speaker 1: U and they didn't even try to make me give
Speaker 1: up my rights to that, even like my Facebook page
Speaker 1: and all of that, Like I own all of those things.
Speaker 1: I know some people sell those, but I have like
Speaker 1: I think, like four million followers on Facebook, and so
Speaker 1: that does really well for me also, I believe it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's great because a lot of the content that
Speaker 1: I do, you know, it is kind of a way
Speaker 1: of me documenting my whole journey too, because interviews and
Speaker 1: things that I've done that's all on my Facebook page. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so for me it's valuable in that way too,
Speaker 1: for me to be able to be like, oh, look,
Speaker 1: when I did this interview and have those moments um circulating,
Speaker 1: always um. One of the more important things when you're
Speaker 1: starting in business is good credit, and often even more
Speaker 1: than having the cash. I'm having good credit is super
Speaker 1: duper important. What did you learn about this when you
Speaker 1: were starting out investing and buying houses and starting businesses?
Speaker 1: And you might have had the cash you talked about
Speaker 1: that two hundreds something thousand dollars, But what did you
Speaker 1: have to learn about even the credit side of this game? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, if you don't have good credit, you're
Speaker 1: gonna end up paying for it, you know, so either
Speaker 1: you won't be able to get a mortgage or your
Speaker 1: interest rate will be so high that you'll be paying
Speaker 1: all this extra money that you shouldn't have to. And
Speaker 1: so I didn't even attempt to buy a house until
Speaker 1: I had good credit, and that meant a journey of
Speaker 1: me fixing my credit. So even if you're thinking right now,
Speaker 1: I don't have the money to buy a house, start
Speaker 1: working on your credit. You could start working on that today.
Speaker 1: You know, figure out what it is that you need,
Speaker 1: and you could do it yourself. You don't have to
Speaker 1: hire anybody to do it. These are things that you
Speaker 1: can figure out on your own and letters that you
Speaker 1: can write. You can find that online. If you need
Speaker 1: to contact any of the negative reports on your credit score,
Speaker 1: you need to go ahead and do that. For me,
Speaker 1: I fortunately started working on my credit way before I
Speaker 1: knew I wanted to buy a house, for like two
Speaker 1: years before I even attempted to do it, because like
Speaker 1: I said, I had to save the money up. But
Speaker 1: then I also was looking and I was getting prepared
Speaker 1: for that, but I had to fix my credit. And
Speaker 1: I think people would tell you, like, oh, what do
Speaker 1: you need credit for if you have the cash? But
Speaker 1: why would you want to use all your cash? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean why is this something that Angelie you care
Speaker 1: so much about to the extent of, you know, partnering
Speaker 1: to start a company around. I mean, I've heard you
Speaker 1: talk about financial literacy for a long time entrepreneurship because
Speaker 1: it is all things that I didn't know, and it
Speaker 1: can be really crippling. Like some people can't get an
Speaker 1: apartment unless they have someone co sign for it, and
Speaker 1: that's something that is like really difficult because who wants
Speaker 1: to co sign for somebody? You know how hard that
Speaker 1: is to find a lot of people can't co sign
Speaker 1: for somebody, and a lot of people won't because everyone
Speaker 1: will tell you not to do that. And so if
Speaker 1: you can't go out like an adult and do things
Speaker 1: for yourself, that can be really, you know, mentally exhaustive,
Speaker 1: and it can also just physically be such a hinderance
Speaker 1: to you. And so that's why it's important to me.
Speaker 1: I even look at members of my own family who
Speaker 1: have bad credit, and you know how hard it is
Speaker 1: for them, and sometimes, like for me, I wouldn't even
Speaker 1: open my bills. It was really stressful. Like I thought
Speaker 1: about it a lot. We all have been in that
Speaker 1: situation when we all haven't but but in that situation
Speaker 1: where we know these creditors are calling our phone, we
Speaker 1: don't even want to answer the phone. It's embarrassing, and
Speaker 1: it's also like, you know, it's just so stressful, and
Speaker 1: then maybe you answer the phone by accident one time
Speaker 1: and then they're like, hi, we're calling from like oh
Speaker 1: my god, you know, but it's terrible. It's not a
Speaker 1: good feeling. And so I think it's just important to
Speaker 1: face it and to work through it and to make
Speaker 1: it happen, because you know, it's just like the calmness
Speaker 1: that comes and knowing that, like, okay, I have and
Speaker 1: if there's an opportunity, you're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to take advantage of it because you don't have good credit.
Speaker 1: Like even the building that I'm trying to buy right now,
Speaker 1: the only reason I'm able to do it, it's because
Speaker 1: my credit is good, you know. And if it wasn't,
Speaker 1: then I'll miss out on that opportunity to buy a
Speaker 1: dirty unit building where I'll have this income coming in
Speaker 1: and that can help make me wealthy because I don't
Speaker 1: have the credit to be able to get the loan
Speaker 1: from the bank. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, because you've talked
Speaker 1: so much about financial literacy over the years, and increasingly
Speaker 1: about entrepreneurship, what is the difference in your mind between
Speaker 1: being broke and being poor? Well, being broke, I was
Speaker 1: broke a long time, but I still had a good
Speaker 1: time while I was broke. You know. Being broke is
Speaker 1: like I still was going out and eating because I'll
Speaker 1: go to all these events with free food and free
Speaker 1: drinks and you know, figuring it out and me and
Speaker 1: all my friends are broke. Being poor, I think, feels
Speaker 1: more like a mindset of I'll never get out of this,
Speaker 1: I'll never have any money, I can't do anything, and
Speaker 1: it can be like it feels like people look at
Speaker 1: that as more permanent. Being broken is like a temporary thing.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't have to ever be poor. You
Speaker 1: can be broken temporarily and then you can get yourself
Speaker 1: out of it. I hate the term serial entrepreneur, but
Speaker 1: you know, for somebody who's just an entrepreneur, you have
Speaker 1: different businesses in different industries. You know, for people who
Speaker 1: have a lot of ideas and are really passionate about
Speaker 1: getting those ideas out into the world, like you have,
Speaker 1: what's some of the best advice you've gotten or you
Speaker 1: have for people who want to do two three four
Speaker 1: different things in different verticals? What have you learned about
Speaker 1: that in order to do it well or to stop
Speaker 1: from doing it at all? You know, what do you
Speaker 1: say to that? I would say, you have to prioritize
Speaker 1: at different times, And so when I'm starting a business,
Speaker 1: I make sure that's my main priority. That is my
Speaker 1: like twenty four seven. You know, if this takes priority
Speaker 1: over everything right now way up with angela, ye is
Speaker 1: the priority, So everything else has to work around that.
Speaker 1: So whatever time I have, if I have to be
Speaker 1: on the air. If I have to do this for
Speaker 1: my show, that's the most important thing. And then everything else,
Speaker 1: the coffee, everything has to be scheduled around that. I
Speaker 1: still do it, but it's not the number one priority.
Speaker 1: When I first opened the Juice Bar, that was a
Speaker 1: number one priority. I was at work and every single
Speaker 1: day I was there making sure whatever had to be
Speaker 1: delivered was happening. I was working with the contractors, I was,
Speaker 1: you know, in there every single day, working with the employees,
Speaker 1: and so that was the first priority for me at
Speaker 1: that time. So I think when you're a serial entpremaneure
Speaker 1: and you're trying to juggle different businesses, being able to
Speaker 1: prioritize is one of the most important things that you
Speaker 1: can do. And then I think along with that is
Speaker 1: also having a schedule and sticking to it, because you
Speaker 1: really have to a lot time for each thing and
Speaker 1: make sure that you're like, okay, and I literally set
Speaker 1: my alarm, like I know, from twelve to one, I
Speaker 1: have to do this one o'clock, Okay, one to two thirty.
Speaker 1: I'm working on this. Set my alarm, and I give
Speaker 1: myself ample time to travel or do what I have
Speaker 1: to do in between things. But it's all about just
Speaker 1: scheduling your time and prioritizing and taking care of yourself
Speaker 1: because you have to get some food. Black Tech Green
Speaker 1: Money is a production of Blackbty Afro Tech in the
Speaker 1: Black Effect podcast Networking Ninheart Media. It's produced by Morgan
Speaker 1: Dubonne and me Well Lucas, with additional production supported by
Speaker 1: Sarah Arkiney Rose McLucas. Special thank you to Michael Davis
Speaker 1: and Vanessa Serrano. Learn more about my guests and other
Speaker 1: tech to Truff's to innovatives at afrotech dot com. Can
Speaker 1: join your Black Tech Green Money shut us with Somebody
Speaker 1: Go get your money. He's some luck